I know, I know, I am a SLACKER!! I told you several days ago I was taking the day off.. and took three instead! Despite the nagging feelings of guilt, I just needed a break. This time it wasn't due to illness (though Isaac and I are pretty sick with a cold, it's not enough to stop me!) it was a simple case of minor burn out. Special offers did me in, and sometimes I just need to step back and let things go for a while. I'm sorry if any of you missed me, but there wasn't TOO much to post about- the good news is I did manage to snag a couple of screenshots during that time for today's blog. It's all helter skelter, and I didn't take good notes like I usually do, so today's blog may read a bit erm... scatterbrained (LOL) but I gotta flex my fingers, and my brain, and get back in the groove!
Before I start, let me share the fun I had while I was away. Yesterday was my son's second birthday. Though we were sick, and I *almost* thought I was going to have to postpone his "party" until today, we still managed to have a lot of fun. I was able to get him presents via SwagBucks, and a gift my Dad sent over, but this is the first time I felt the challenge of having a birthday so close to Christmas. Fortunately, I GOT this! I've got Swag Bucks on my side this year! I've gotten all my Christmas shopping done except for Isaac, but I have $50 PayPal and $22 left in Amazon that says this won't be a problem! I know, I know, SLACKING again, I have to order it by tomorrow, but last night I stayed up until 1 am wrapping, wrapping, wrapping. I was even able to get my husband a gift this year, something I haven't been able to do for Christmas in 2 years!
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| The last 3 items for my stepdaughter! YAY! |
So, if anyone from Swag Bucks reads this, Thank You for running such an Awesome service. I know you make money, but we ALL make money, it's the first WIN - WIN - WIN business I've ever seen. *gets all teary eyed* I couldn't have done Christmas, or my kids 3 birthdays, without you. *sobers up!* Seriously, though, I'm sure you all believe in your business, enjoy your jobs (for the most part?). I'm sure you've heard it before, how much of a help Swag Bucks has been to folks, but you may not know the extent of the difference it has made in some of our lives.
Thank you not only for the chance to earn all this free swag, but for being so ON TOP with customer service, for fixing issues, listening to our feedback and making changes that work for the community. For going to bat for us with the offer companies! Thank you for adding and tweaking features all the time (also for giving me so much to blog about with all these new features LOL). Just, Thank you all!
Also, I wanna thank the folks that frequent the Swagbucks Facebook wall. This is at least half of the reason I prefer Swag Bucks to any other search and reward, or GPT, Get Paid To, site. The other major 2, ZoomBucks and iRazoo, have Facebook walls also, but there's no sense of community, or family, there. Most of the people who do talk are also active lurkers / posters on the Swagbucks wall. *chuckle*
And as we all know...
Thanks for making me laugh, a Lot. Thanks for helping new members, and there are Always new members, with patience. The more people that stick with the Swag, the bigger Swagbucks can grow. Which can only mean more opportunities for Us All.
Ok, enough sappy sweet toothache love fest :P
Where to start? *rifles through her GIMP files for screenshots*
Let's get the obvious out of the way. Swag Bucks TV, Captchas, and Autoplay Control.
Many swaggernauts have been taking full advantage of the autoplay features on SBTV, letting it run nonstop for many hours. All day. All night. *laugh* (they must have far better systems than mine LOL) There have been many reports of 15 SBTV wins a day. TSG tells us Team Swag Bucks is all for us winning that many times a day. If we are dedicated enough, hey, Go for it! However, the spirit of the agreement is that we actually Watch the videos. Partly because they make their money - and earn the money to fund Our swag snagging, from the advertisers, and I'm guessing, the companies that compile the videos we are watching. If we aren't watching, those people aren't getting what they paid for, and SwagBucks stands to lose out on money. Which in turn would lessen the wins for us all. Or raise the prices of the swagloot.
This is why they brought back the CAPTCHA system. CAPTCHAs are three letters you have to enter within a certain amount of time to be able to claim your Swagbucks. The point is to prove you are really there, and that you aren't a "bot" program set to run things automatically without the need of your presence.
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| I AM NOT A ROBOT in robot :P |
Ok this is not an SBTV CAPTCHA, but the principal is the same. 3 letters, limited time. So far I haven't seen any captchas, but these past few days since this has rolled out, I haven't been using the computer nearly as much or in the way that I usually do. I didn't spend much time on SBTV, I don't think I even got a single win yesterday. But I only watched about 8 videos before I moved on to other things. The times I have won however have not had the captchas. I'm guessing it's random like the win itself.
They've received a lot of feedback asking that Autoplay be something we could turn on or off. Now that the captchas are back , we'd like to have a moment to enter the captcha before the video switches, and we lose our chance. They heard our wishes and brought in Autoplay Control.
All you have to do is click the ON button, and it changes to OFF. Easy! Now if they could weed out more of the videos that consistently hang and freeze for users (Half Rickshaw vid, anyone? anyone) I'd be much more likely to use SBTV consistently again.
Swag Bucks has also implemented a new "featured offer" on the home page and special offers page. This will change at intervals, and once you've completed the offer, it will be removed from your special offer wall.
When it first rolled out, it was an at&t video / vote offer. Watch the video, vote, receive 8 swagbucks. Its currently the GE Wind, Water, and Lights offer. If you didn't complete it when they ran it in November (on the homepage rotating slideshow) you simply upload a picture that describes to you one or all of Wind, Water, or Lights. This gets you 7 swagbucks.
I like it, as long as it keeps changing with enough frequency for me to get use out of it :P
Also the appearance of the NOSO page has changed. It explains in 3 easy graphical steps how to complete the NOSO swagbuck quest.
Looks different, works the same :) Click "Start Earning Now" and skip through the offers (unless it's something you are genuinely interested in!) to get your swagbuck. There are usually between 1-3, occasionally as many as 6, to go through.
One special offer warning, and one special offer funny. Funny first.
Is it just me, or does the mere mention of Pirate Hats and Songs raise a red flag about the company? I dunno why, but this made me chuckle.
Now the warning. On the SuperRewards wall is an offer to "Turn your friends into Elf's with Elf Me". It says you must install the plugin to get your swagbucks. 1st off, be careful installing plug ins. B: This offer doesn't work. There is no plugin to install, therefore you can go through the whole photo process and you won't receive your swagbucks. There have been other offers like this, it varies with the holiday. At Halloween it was zombies and vampires. Tapjoy has 2 versions of these, one being the plugin that FAILS, the other being a toolbar that has a virus in it. YAY! Just don't do them. Bad Juju.
And now, on to something completely different! I have to add this to the Freebie Spotlight tab! I got a free 1 year subscription to REDBOOK magazine, thanks to a link posted by the ladies who run Freebies R Us on Facebook. I've discovered a ton of holiday giveaways you should go enter! First there's a sweepstakes for $250,000!!
Just go to win250k.redbookmag.com to enter. This first page you see tells you that by using this form, you are signing up for a 1 year subscription, with the first month as a free trial. Note the yellow box! You don't have to sign up to the free trial to enter, simly click the link in that area to reach the truely free entry form.
Once you have entered that, you are registered for the redbook.com website, which enables you to go enter other sweepstakes. The link for the other giveaways is http://www.redbookmag.com/freebies or redbookmag.com/online-sweepstakes/ .
The giveaway I've highlighted is the "Giveaway a Day" sweepstakes.
Each day they give away a different prize, but the same prizes are rotated throughout the weeks. You can enter each type of prize giveaway once a day. The Jane Marvel bags all count as different items so you can enter each of those once a day.
The rest of the giveaways on the main sweepstakes page are for items like Fragrance sets, or gift cards. There are a LOT of neat gift card giveaways! They range from $50 at Payless Shoes to $1000 at Harry & David gourmet gifts & food. My FAVORITE giveaway is a 1 year, 3 DVD at a time Netflix membership. /swoon!
I'd LOVE to win that one. Of course, my preference would be to win the $250,000 prize. Then I could have all the Netflix I want, and the home theatre system to really enjoy it! *laugh!* These giveaways are one time only entries.
That's it for today, Swag Friends! See, I may not have been posting, but I was thinkin' of ya the whole time! Go enter those sweepstakes, and let me know if you win!!
Until Tomorrow...
HAPPY SWAGSURFING!
